[billyboy920]

My hard drive crashed and my attempts to re install windows xp were unsuccessful. I purchased a new HD and a shiny new Vista Ultimate OS. I will install the new HD tomorrow and do a clean install of Vista. I have some questions from there:

1. do I install the motherboard drivers before or after I install Vista?
2. once I get the new HD set up and get my system properly configured, is there any way I can retrieve data from my old HD?
3. If the files on my old HD are corrupted, is it worth my while to try to save anything to the new HD?

I think the problems with my old HD are software related. I tried to reinstall XP on a new partition but the computer goes into an endless reboot mode after the first set of files are installed and the first automatic reboot occurs.

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1) After installing Vista (you need an OS to install drivers )

2) Yeah, change the jumpers on the old hard drive and install it as a slave. Hopefully then you'll be able to see the drive in Vista and recover the files. If not, we can try other methods to recover the data.

3) I'm assuming the kind of files that you would want to transfer to the new hard drive are documents, pictures, etc. If any files would be corrupted, it'd most likely be system files, not the type you'd like to transfer over. So yes, it will be worth it.

[mpfeif101]

1) After installing Vista (you need an OS to install drivers )

2) Yeah, change the jumpers on the old hard drive and install it as a slave. Hopefully then you'll be able to see the drive in Vista and recover the files. If not, we can try other methods to recover the data.

3) I'm assuming the kind of files that you would want to transfer to the new hard drive are documents, pictures, etc. If any files would be corrupted, it'd most likely be system files, not the type you'd like to transfer over. So yes, it will be worth it.

[billyboy920]

thanks,
both HDs are SATA, so I'll check my mobo manual for configuration.

[billyboy920]

I installed the new HD and hooked up the pc. turned it on and put windows vista in the dvd drive. got white bar across bottom of screen saying 'windows is loading files'. then nothing, blank screen (not blue), keyboard off, mouse off, reset button and power switch dont work.

powered off at power supply and restarted. went into bios. bios recognizes processor and new HD and optical drives. change configuration to boot from dvd. same as above, blank screen.

am afraid I have a mobo or cpu problem. hope I'm wrong. what can you tell me?

[billyboy920]

never mind, I checked all my connection pushed everything in more firmly and now install is in progress.

sorry to bother, thanks for all help

[billyboy920]

back again arrrrghhh!!!!

got vista installed on new hd
decided to put in the old hd and see if I could transfer files

back to blank screen
cant even start in safe mode
cant boot from cd, get symptom I described earlier- white bar says loading windows files then blank screen and nothing.

disconnected old hd again, made sure connections were secure, and
back to blank screen
cant even start in safe mode
cant boot from cd, get symptom I described earlier- white bar says loading windows files then blank screen and nothing.